... for an arc
flash study that Mr. Reyes was qualified to do in house and at
no cost to taxpayers.

$200,000

... the estimated
engineering cost of the express feeder which could also be done
in house at no cost to taxpayers.

$591,898

... wasted when
insurance requirements were circumvented by the city manager and
utility director.

$123,098

... wasted when
plant manager Dave Mulvay’s first attempt at writing a scope
of work contained a defect that cost taxpayers an extra $123,098
for tainting the bidding process and giving unfair advantage to
one bidder over another. - April 2009

$64,000

... wasted when
the Matrix organizational study to save taxpayers money was scrapped
in favor of higher cost outsourcing by city manager Stanton.

$450,000

... wasted engineering
design cost of water piping and tanks (original county water deal)
that will never be built.

$59,975

... wasted when
additional costs were incurred for not following insurance procedure
on transformer repair.

$82,620

... wasted when
the commission unanimously voted to order transformers when we
had equivalent replacements already in stock since the upgrade.
- 15 Sep. 2009

CITY MANAGER STANTON BOOTED OUT

In this joyous season, I am celebrating the potential for renewal in Lake Worth
which began with a bold move to clean out city management from the top down.

From Paul Boyer to Susan Stanton… inept, corrupt, wasteful and often
cruel leadership disregarded the public and common sense honesty and openness.

Yes, I know there are those who are disappointed to see Stanton fired but dwelling
on one side of her performance while ignoring the other side of the story…
is delusional.

Let’s begin with Stanton’s first and most unsuspecting target,
Lake Worth Media (LWM), taken completely by surprise with a malicious and totally
unprovoked attack.

During the time between Stanton’s election for city manager and the month
she took office, LWM did not engage in any of the common speculation and rumor
milling as to her qualifications or appropriateness for office and LWM shared
a great hope that her integrity and claims of spiritual reverence for the primary
importance of open and transparent government would make her an effective leader
bringing peace to Lake Worth.

In a private meeting with Suzanne Mulvehill, Stanton, and myself right after
Stanton took office... Stanton repeated what I thought to be just a rumor or joke.
She accused LWM of “sticking a camera in everyone’s face, zooooooooming
and zooooooooming out, distracting the audience at meetings, and obstructing
the audience view of meetings.” I thought the obvious over-dramatization
was a signal that it was a joke.

In five years, not a single commissioner or staff member had ever objected
to my filming meetings. On a number of occasions, I asked the city clerk if
I was inconveniencing her in any way or causing any interference to the commission
or their meeting, or if she had any preferences or suggestions she could offer.
She assured me each time that I should surely put the matter to rest as there
was nothing at all to be concerned about. Even Jeff Clemens who certainly had
no love for LWM… was politically savvy and gentleman enough to understand
cameras in the meeting room are never a bad thing if transparency and open government
are indeed of paramount importance to good government.

After this opening salvo from Stanton and seeing no move on my part to defend
myself from this false accusation, Stanton tried to provoke a response by engaging
in ridiculous antics and dramatic role playing suggesting that I sit in her
chair and she in mine so I could be the city manager. This juvenile behavior
was embarrassing for Suzanne as Stanton was making a total jackass of herself
prancing around the table as if this were some form of ritual foreplay or prelude
to some serious discussion of something. She was just plain nuts ...and Suzanne
knew it.

Remaining quiet, unmoved and calm, I smiled as she insisted on playing musical
chairs. I was waiting for Suzanne to intervene and correct Stanton’s false
accusations about filming commission meetings.

While Suzanne nervously fumbled about trying to bring calm to the air, I could
see she was obviously a little freaked out at the bizarre behavior and when
she did try to put me into a favorable light she stopped short of countering
Stanton’s false accusations.

This became clearer when at a later commission meeting …commissioners
sheepishly agreed to ban cameras from the meeting room. They had just sold out
their friend and advocate and it was clear Stanton was already in control of
the commission as they went against their better sense of fairness, and good
government to appease "mother hen" (Stanton).

Almost immediately after this meeting, Stanton lowered the seating capacity
of an already under capacity commission meeting room by taking out the first
one or two rows of seating… another blow to public convenience in participating
in their government. Everything was adding up to... “he who controls information
controls everything.”

Over the next few months, instead of filing backup material to her weekly city
manager reports in an orderly and convenient manner, she began intermixing backup
material making it nearly impossible to conveniently get the information. Later
on, she made it even more difficult to get any information from her reports.

A few months after that, she agreed with the utility director to place a gag
order on employees forbidding them to tell the truth about what had happened
when an unknown assailant gained access to the master utility computer causing
it to lose critical data. In a public meeting, she told the Sheriff and the
Post that she had conducted a thorough investigation on the security breach
and that there was no breach as the utility director had said. But utility employees
contacted LWM and were adament that no one in the utility had been interviewed
nor had there been any investigating of any kind.

So LWM requested any and all investigation records, correspondence, memos,
meeting schedules, a list of interviewers, who was interviewed etc… and
the city was unable to produce a single scrap of paper, a single record or even
a single memo to show any investigation had ever taken place… just as
employees had said.

And a little interesting side note here… when LWM offered to show Post
reporter, Willie Howard, the documentation showing Stanton’s statement
about conducting an investigation being false… Willie refused to look
at it or write anything about it. That’s what we mean by Post staff operating
in a vacuum. So I see no surprise that they still overlook the obvious.

Making matters worse, in order to cover for the utility director’s screw
up, Stanton agreed to place gag orders on utility staff forbidding them to mention
anything about what had happened. Threats and intimidation of employees is something
we more associate with the mafia than our local government... but there it is
in black and white.

Finally, as with all tyrants obsessed with controlling everything… Stanton’s
very pursuit of controlling everything led to her controlling nothing. The final
blow to the public came a few months ago, as she insisted on turning the audio
off outside the meeting room in the hall thus preventing the public from hearing
the meeting just because they couldn’t find a seat in the reduced capacity
meeting room. Then to make sure no one outside the meeting room could participate,
she then secured the meeting room doors in a highly symbolic move to prevent
any residents outside the meeting from participating in their government.

This only added to the other grievances such as the withholding financial information
from the public which the Post also chose to marginalize. It was one thing for
Stanton to make the meeting room smaller, make video taping nearly impossible,
impede and obstruct the free flow of information... but preventing the public
from participating in their government…that surely smacks of behavior
unfit for anyone running a city.

In the end, it's the arrogance and obsession with controlling the commission
and the public that caused her firing. She may have gotten away with it in Largo
Florida, but not in contentious Lake Worth where the public can ill afford to
have such deceitfulness prevail in their government.

And it should be a message to all tyrants who engage in such deceitful and
devious activity, that sooner or later, you will be summarily tossed out on
your ear in a most embarrassing way and those few that lament, will soon forget
your name. You may choose to extol her accomplishments ...perhaps on standing
up to the County and saving our 15 million investment in the RO facility instead
of handing it over to the County... yes, good work and perhaps not interfering
with getting our electric upgrade back on track after 10 million was wasted
on the wrong upgrade... yes, good things. And you can lament her absence, and
no one can take that away from you… but don’t deny the reality that
we are saying goodbye to someone unfit for office for one and only one simple
reason... they did not honor the foundations of democratic and Constitutional
government which does not begin by saying "We the appointed..."